EAST RUTHERFORD — General Mills announced earlier this month that for the first time in 18 years, it will run a TV commercial for its Cheerios cereal brand during the Super Bowl, bizjournals.com reports..

The announcement has analysts wondering whether the cereal brand will be bringing back the ad that incited backlash earlier this year because it focused on an interracial family, reports USA Today.

The commercial, entitled "Just Checking," featured an African American man, a Caucasian woman and their daughter.

Last spring, the company posted the commercial on YouTube and it soon attracted racist comments, prompting the brand to disable the comments function, reports the Huffington Post.

But everyday consumers and opinion writers praised the brand's choice to feature the interracial family.

"It shows interracial families and their children being normal and cute, not something to gawk at or to question," wrote Jezebel writer Megan Hatcher-Mays.

General Mills wouldn't reveal any details about its Super Bowl commercial, reports USA Today. But the company did say in its announcement that it would be designed by the same creative team as Just Checking.

Still, analysts told USA Today that if the company knows what's good for it, it will bring back the family.

"They've got a winner here thanks to taking a risk, and shouldn't back away from the success they achieved," branding consultant Pam Danziger told the newspaper.